The South African Football Association (Safa*) has signed a long-term partnership with EY. The accountants- and consulting firm will be tasked with improving the body’s poor financial management and corporate governance.

Since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Safa has gone through a difficult time. Last year it even recorded a loss of R46-million (€3,2 million), mainly a result of mismanagement and a structural negative financial household. To make matters worse, it has over the past months been linked with match-fixing scandals that refuse to go away. Following the match-fixing claims, sportswear company Puma cut ties with Safa after less than two years of a partnership that was expected to run until 2018. The deal was worth R20-million (something close to €1,4 million) a year. And last month Absa, a xxx bank, announced that it too would end its relationship with Safa after a six-year partnership.

To counter the negative trend the Safa recently hired a new CEO, Danny Jordaan, who joined in September. One of his first actions is to bring the sport association back to black digits and to recover its image among sporters, sponsors and the general public. EY has been hired to advise on the matter. “We are pleased to have EY on board. We want to establish a good financial control and management, and EY has a strong track record in helping companies achieve this. Just take a look at the FIFA, EY has worked with FIFA to help get it where it is" Jordaan says.

Earlier projectsEY is not unfamiliar to Safa. The Big 4 office has fulfilled multiple assignments during by the command of Safa during the past years, including implementing a purchase platform in 2012, internal audit and also during the World Championship EY intensively involved with a broad scala of audit, taxes and financial services.